Beat the Dust decided to subvert Christmas this year to celebrate the Third Coming of our Featured Writer slot. We don’t do lords a-leaping or maids a-milking at Beat the Dust but what we do do is great underground literature, and this month was no exception. We had a feature length short story from our third featured writer, STEVE FINBOW. He once worked for the poet Allen Ginsberg and has also helped or hindered Victor Bockris, Barry Miles, and the artist Richard Long. He is an editor at 3:AM Magazine, proprietor of litzine Red Peter, a some-time writer for Quarantine Theatre Company and a book reviewer for The Japan Times. His novel Balzac of the Badlands will be published by Future Fiction London (Creation) in October 2009. We were keen to give short fiction room to stretch its legs so in this Featured Writer issue of Beat the Dust, we serialised a longer story of Steve's called 'Down Among the Dead.' You can either read each instalment of the story yourself online below or listen to Steve reading it to you. Click here to listen to him introducing his story .
STEVE FINBOW, FEATURED WRITER - DECEMBER 08 ISSUE
Author:
Steve Finbow, Featured Writer for December 08
Kevin O’Cuinn, writer, architect of Kevsville & man about Frankfurt asks Steve three questions:
1. How did/Did working for Allen Ginsberg change how/what you wrote?
It didn’t. Not really, Kev. To be perfectly honest, I admire Allen the man more than Allen the poet. I’m more influenced by Clark Coolidge, Charles Bernstein & Bruce Andrews. I suppose what I did learn was that if you call yourself a “writer” then you must spend the majority of your time/life writing, thinking about writing & reading. Hard work – Allen worked harder than any writer I know/have known. Bob Rosenthal said to me, “The world’s become a lot worse since Allen died” – or something like that. & I agree. We need someone like Allen to bravely confront the bullshit.
2. 20m squid for Robbie Keane, you must be sick as. If you could replace him with anyone, who’d you pick?
Lionel Messi, (if we had a footie Tardis) Diego Maradona or Peter Beardsley – all perfect foils for Torres’ genius.
3. You’re an en dash type of fella. Why not the em?
I am, aren’t I? I prefer the en dash – I like the gaps either side, that microscopic expansion of time & space. The near death of the long sentence upsets me; I enjoy the expansion of thought semi-colons allow, the rhythmic pulse of the comma & the ability of the en dash – delicate but forceful – to slow the reader down, make them think about what they’re reading; whereas the em dash—big & brutal—slams home the point that we’re digressing somewhat. Make a new sentence.
Submission Date:
06 Dec 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
down among the dead - part one
Excerpt:
To listen to Steve Finbow reading part one of his story, click the play button .
Toby Litt, author of I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay, Hospital, & deadkidsongs, asks Steve:
I know you knew Allen Ginsberg. I’m interested whether or not you’d go along with his teaching – “First thought, best thought”? Do you think that rewriting detracts from the purity of original intention?
I worked for Allen Ginsberg in the late eighties/early nineties, as a researcher, archivist, & editor, writing (with Allen’s constant input) some of the prose (blurbs, references, short essays) that people, institutions, & publications asked Allen for. I also typed up Allen’s poems onto the computer. In so doing, I realized that Allen’s “first thought, best thought”– although technically correct (Allen would usually compose short poems in one sitting & longer ones over a period of time with very little editing) – was not strictly true, he would edit & make notes & corrections before being happy with a final draft – as one can see in the original manuscript of Howl. The spontaneous mind is important to Beat creativity: the texts of On the Road, Kaddish – written over a 40-hour period – Naked Lunch – assembled from letters & routines – are all works of primary spontaneity. But the Beats knew they were the butt-end of high modernism & they were all very aware of their literary roots & of their part in history in the making (Allen saved everything, & I mean everything). Editing & revising poems (Allen also helped to edit Naked Lunch) does not distract from the basic tenet: “first thought, best thought.” Edits & revisions are appendages to the original principle. Fellow Lower East Side poet Ted Berrigan said something like, “Get it down,” & so the answer to the second part of the question is, I’m not sure any of my or any other writers’ thoughts are pure, I’m not sure we intend to think that way, & I’m certain that none of our thoughts are original. Rewriting and editing are means to recover vision, imagination, & inspiration in logic – translating those spontaneous & personal thoughts into a communicative language understood by others, not just by the poet/writer. Don’t forget Burroughs considered himself a host for the word virus, a communicating vessel.
Submission Date:
06 Dec 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
down among the dead - part two
Excerpt:
To listen to Steve Finbow reading part two of his story, click the play button .
Stephen Barber, author of Antonin Artaud: Terminal Curses, Tokyo Trilogy, & Projected Cities: asks Steve:
What kind of sensorial & ocular impact would you like your readers to experience in their contact with your writing – & what kind of in-built survival strategy do your writings have in order to endure a coming apocalypse?
I want people to smell the words. I enjoy writing that is physical in its effect – Pierre Guyotat’s relentlessness, the poetry of Charles Reznikoff & Louis Zukofsky, or the theoretical writings of Gilles Deleuze. I like sentences with heft, paragraphs with brute force, a chapter that smacks you in the mouth, a book that bludgeons you with its genius. Sentences are visual – whether Hemingway’s minimalist masterpieces, Proust’s epic wordscapes, or the brain worms created while reading the works of Alain Robbe-Grillet. Chew them over. Sometimes they’re as light as gossamer sorbets, sometimes it’s like chewing toffee laced with cocktail sticks. In-built survival strategy? Humour, a commitment to now, a tanker full of Stella, & a gold-plated Purdy for those pesky post-apocalyptic critics. I’m waiting for you, Michiko Kakutani.
Submission Date:
06 Dec 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
down among the dead - part three
Excerpt:
To listen to Steve Finbow reading part three of his story, click the play button .
Stewart Home, film-maker, artist & author of Red London, Blow Job & Memphis Underground, asks Steve:
Do you think the quality of English language fiction writing has declined in comparison to the mid-to-late twentieth century? & if the answer is yes, is this because there is a freer availability of other material (computer games, films & music on download & DVD) or do other factors play an important role? If the answer is no, how do we find that good writing because it seems difficult to locate?
Woah! Maybe the standard of publishing has declined. I’ve said before that I doubt very much whether Samuel Beckett, BS Johnson, or Ann Quin would find a publisher if they were writing today. I’m going to say ‘no’. If there is more ‘media’ availability, such as computer games etc., then that has to be included in the writing process – fiction writing didn’t all of a sudden lapse into retardation after the invention of the steam engine or television. The end of the world for me is always the conclusion to Mill on the Floss: “Nothing else was said; a new danger was being carried toward them by the river. Some wooden machinery had just given way on one of the wharves, and huge fragments were being floated along. The sun was rising now, and the wide area of watery desolation was spread out in dreadful clearness around them; in dreadful clearness floated onward the hurrying, threatening masses.” Published in the same year as the first sound recording of a human voice was made, this paragraphic deluge heralds the oncoming industrial age, the introduction and urbanization of the working classes, the invention of childhood, the commodification of leisure and pleasure, yet it didn’t retard the development of Henry James, DH Lawrence, Henry Miller, or Alain Robbe-Grillet. As for locating good writing, well, unfortunately in this era of mass communication it is mostly through word of mouth, & follow-up research, & referencing. Through your own work, I discovered the aforementioned Ann Quin, plus Pierre Guyotat & Dennis Cooper. From the suggestions of others, I’ve read Tom McCarthy, William T. Vollmann & Kenji Nakagami. & then there are the small publishers who have the balls to publish “good” inventive & experimental fiction writers – publishers such as Alma, Book Works, Creation & Wrecking Ball Press.
Submission Date:
06 Dec 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
down among the dead - part four
Excerpt:
To listen to Steve Finbow reading part four of his story, click the play button .
Chris Killen, author of The Bird Room, asks Steve:
Please describe an ‘average day’ in the life of Steve Finbow if Steve Finbow was a cat.
I wake around 6 am & nuzzle my mistress’ thighs. Reon Kadena – for it is she who refreshes my kitty litter – rises, slips on her dressing gown, drops me into the silk holster of her pocket as if I were some furry pistol, & prepares me a breakfast of scrambled eggs, smoked salmon & truffle oil. I prowl around our roof garden in Rio de Janeiro, cruelly dissecting but not eating any small birds stupid enough to land there. While marking my territory, I occasionally sip imported Sapporo Classic from my platinum drinking bowl. Later, I slink up onto the Le Corbusier two-seater sofa & into my mistress’ lap, let her long carmine nails tickle my taut belly. I rub my head on the underside of her black lace bra, sniff the air for the tang of leather from her black knee-length boots & purr, “Just a bit lower, Reon. Bit more.”
Submission Date:
06 Dec 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
down among the dead - part five
Excerpt:
To listen to Steve Finbow reading part five of his story, click the play button .
Paul Ewen, writer of London Pub Reviews, asks Steve:
Have you had any interesting dreams lately?
I dream a lot. I have recurring dreams in which I am unable to call people on the phone. The phone is made of jelly, or it is so large I don’t have the power to press the keys, or its dial is a starfish, etc. Communication issues, I’m sure. I dream about cities & moving about them. I hover a lot in my dreams. Rarely fly. I have long, narrative dreams that stop & start either side of getting up to go to the toilet. The other night, I had a dream about ladyboys & Chihuahuas – nuff said.
David Peace, author of Tokyo Year Zero, The Damned Utd, & GB84 asks Steve:
What book will you buy me for Christmas?
Ooh, cheeky. Well, that’s a hard one because I know you have a lot of books. My first instinct says, Violence by Slavoj Žižek or Julian Cope’s Japrock Sampler but it will probably be a toss up between Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 & 50 Drawings to Murder Magic by Antonin Artaud. Or both.
Submission Date:
06 Dec 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
down among the dead - part six
Excerpt:
To listen to Steve Finbow reading part six of his story, click the play button .
Hillary Raphael, neo-geisha & author of I (Heart) Lord Buddha & Ximena, asks Steve:
Why are such a disproportionately large number of literary theorists into sadomasochistic sex?
Yeah, why is that? Let’s see. Well, theorists create a power exchange through text – their text subverts & supplants the master text. Some critics – Dale Peck for example – inflict pain & humiliation on their subjects – poor Rick Moody. Jacques Derrida’s work is almost algolagnic in its enjoyment of literary and generic dissection – look at The Post Card. Both literary theory & S/M (S/Z – Barthes) are means of control. The theorist/critic treats the author/work as if they/it were a masochist. The original master text rejected in favour of the slave-now-master text. Critic as sadist – the deferred death of the author. Look at the complementary relationship between critic & writer, theory & text – violent love – a transformation from slave to master. In Deleuzean terminology: The Contract: how one person controls the other, sexual enjoyment through delayed gratification – or Différance in Derridean terms – the infinite delay of the signified – master/slave, signifier/signified, author/theorist. The perfect fit is in Sartre’s theories of sadism & masochism: the work of the author subjected to the “abyss of the Other’s (i.e. the theorist’s) subjectivity” – Being & Nothingness. Or the ultimate sadomasochistic/theoretical acts – Maurice Blanchot’s escape from a Nazi firing squad in 1944, Michel Foucault out for the night in San Francisco (Death and the Labyrinth), or Nietzsche eating his own faeces.
Submission Date:
06 Dec 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
down among the dead - part seven
Excerpt:
To listen to Steve Finbow reading part seven of his story, click the play button .
Oliver Harris, author of William Burroughs & the Secret of Fascination & editor of The Yage Letters: Redux, Junky: The Definitive Text of ‘Junk’, & The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959 asks Steve:
How much of your writing/ideas – & what kind of writing/ideas – come(s) to you in that special interzone just before sleep?
I fall asleep quickly. I sleep well but I don’t sleep for long – six hours – it used to be four or five. But there is that period just before sleep – & also just before going under a general anaesthetic – where reality blurs, & that is an important source of images – after all, Andre Breton claimed a hypnagogic experience as the basis of Surrealism. I’d say about ten percent of my interzone experiences make it into my writing: that vision of a city which is always New York City, Liverpool, & the Thames at Staines. The roads leading down steep hills to the river. But the majority of my writing comes to me on walks, daydreams, snippets of dialogue, overheard conversations, strange sights, things found in the street, matter reconstituted into anti-matter – the very stuff of ideas. I’m an “autistic realist”.
Submission Date:
06 Dec 2008
Category:
Short story
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
down among the dead - part eight
Excerpt:
To listen to Steve Finbow reading the final part of his story, click the play button .
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